LANCASTER — Holiday Inn Express came up with a novel way to celebrate the return of a School District of Lancaster teacher who nearly lost his job for making his students pancakes before they took the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests earlier last week.
Kyle Byler, an eighth grade social studies teacher at Hand Middle School, returned to his classroom on Thursday — one week after he said he was suspended without pay and was scheduled to be terminated for his breakfast-related stunt. Byler said the school board was going to vote on his termination on Tuesday, but school officials told FOX43 that his firing was never under consideration, nor was it on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.
Byler returned to work on Thursday.
When Holiday Inn Express heard Byler’s story, it offered to celebrate his reinstatement by giving him one of the hotel’s pancake-making machines, along with enough batter to last his students for the remainder of the school year.
“To ‘Be the Readiest’ for the day ahead, the Holiday Inn Express brand believes that a delicious pancake-filled breakfast is essential,” the company wrote in an email to FOX43. “That’s why Holiday Inn Express hotels offer gusts a complimentary Express Start breakfast bar, including a state-of-the-art, one-touch pancake machine, which makes hot, fluffy pancakes in less than 60 seconds.”
The company said representatives from its Strasburg, Lancaster County hotel would deliver the machine to Byler’s classroom and show the class how it works.
“(We are) pleased to offer this dedicated teacher and his class a free pancake machine and plenty of pancake batter for the remaining school year, so that students and teachers alike can enjoy pancakes at the touch of a button,” the company said in its email. “We welcome this dedicated teacher back to school, and hope he and his students enjoy their very own one-touch pancake machine as much as our guests do.”
There’s no word on whether Byler and the school will accept the offer.
School District of Lancaster spokeswoman Kelly Burkholder told LancasterOnline the district thanks Holiday Inn Express for its offer and encourages the business to donate to the Lancaster Education Foundation.
